System and method for indicating channel assessment information

ABSTRACT

The embodiments provide a method implemented by a network device in a wireless local area network (WLAN) to provide a deferred clear channel assessment (CCA) from a physical layer to an upper layer within the network device. The deferred CCA enables the upper layer to make a final decision on the state of a wireless medium. The method identifies at least one condition on a wireless medium where an upper layer decision is required to determine a state of the wireless medium, and passes on requisite data to the upper layer to enable a decision on the state of the wireless medium. The deferred CCA process supports more complex CCA processes that may rely on information available in an upper layer.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.14/944,417, filed Nov. 18, 2015, which claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Application No. 62/086,989, filed Dec. 3, 2014, which arehereby incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The embodiments of the invention are related to the field of wirelesslocal area network (WLAN) operation. More specifically, the embodimentsof the invention relate to a method and system for augmenting clearchannel assessment to provide additional information to an upper layerfor resolving a state of a wireless medium. Other embodiments are alsodisclosed.

BACKGROUND

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 is a setof physical and media access control (MAC) specifications forimplementing wireless local area network (WLAN) communications between aset of network devices referred to as stations and/or access points.These specifications provide the basis for wireless network productsusing the Wi-Fi brand managed and defined by the Wi-Fi Alliance. Thespecifications define the use of the 2.400-2.500 GHz as well as the4.915-5.825 GHz bands. These spectrum bands are commonly referred to asthe 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. Each spectrum is subdivided into channelswith a center frequency and bandwidth. The 2.4 GHz band is divided into14 channels spaced 5 MHz apart, though some countries regulate theavailability of these channels. The 5 GHz band is more heavily regulatedthan the 2.4 GHz band and the spacing of channels varies across thespectrum with a minimum of a 5 MHs spacing dependent on the regulationsof the respective country or territory.

Communication on any given channel of either the 2.4 GHz or the 5 GHzband between network elements of the WLAN utilizes the clear channelassessment (CCA) protocol. CCA is defined in the IEEE 802.11 standard aspart of the Physical Medium Dependent (PMD) and Physical LayerConvergence Protocol (PLCP) layer. Clear Channel Assessment is composedof two related functions, carrier sense (CS) and energy detection (ED).The CCA protocol is implemented in the physical layer (PHY) of a networkdevice and determines the current state of use of the wireless medium(WM) (i.e., a 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz band), such that a network device (e.g.,a station) will access a channel of the WM only when the WM becomesidle.

The conventional CCA rule mechanism defined in IEEE 802.11 defines theprimary channel to be busy, if one of the conditions listed in the TableI is met, otherwise the primary channel is considered to be idle. If theprimary channel is idle, the PHY will check the secondary channels.

TABLE I Operating Channel Width Conditions 20 MHz, 40 MHz, The start ofa 20 MHz NON_HT PPDU in the 80 MHz, 160 MHz or primary 20 MHz channel asdefined in 80 + 80 MHz 18.3.10.6 (CCA requirements) 40 MHz, 80 MHz, Thestart of a 40 MHz non-HT duplicate or 160 MHz or VHT PPDU in the primary40 MHz channel at 80 + 80 MHz or above −79 dBm, The start of an HT PPDUunder the conditions defined in 20.3.21.5 (CCA sensitivity) 80 MHz, 160MHz or The start of an 80 MHz non-HT duplicate or 80 + 80 MHz VHT PPDUin the primary 80 MHz channel at or above −76 dBm 60 MHz or 80 + 80 MHzThe start of a 160 MHz or 80 + 80 MHz non- HT duplicate or VHT PPDU ator above −73 dBm

SUMMARY

The embodiments provide a method implemented by a network device in awireless local area network (WLAN) to provide a deferred clear channelassessment (CCA) from a physical layer to an upper layer within thenetwork device. The deferred CCA enables the upper layer to make a finaldecision on the state of a wireless medium. The method identifies atleast one condition on a wireless medium where an upper layer decisionis required to determine a state of the wireless medium, and passes onrequisite data to the upper layer to enable a decision on the state ofthe wireless medium. The embodiments encompass the definition of aconditional state that a PHY layer provides to an upper layer toidentify cases and in some embodiments the PHY layer provides data thatenables the upper layer, such as a media access control (MAC) layer todetermine a state of a wireless medium where a CCA process at the PHYlayer does not have sufficient information to complete thedetermination.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated by way of example, and not by wayof limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which likereferences indicate similar elements. It should be noted that differentreferences to “an” or “one” embodiment in this specification are notnecessarily to the same embodiment, and such references mean at leastone. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic isdescribed in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it iswithin the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature,structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodimentswhether or not explicitly described.

FIG. 1A is a flowchart of one embodiment of a process for identifyingcases where CCA assessment is to be passed to an upper layer.

FIG. 1B is a flowchart of another embodiment of a process foridentifying cases where CCA assessment where a conditionally idle stateis identified and passed to an upper layer.

FIG. 2A is a timing diagram of a wireless medium providing example caseswhere a conditionally idle state is recognized and passed via aPHY-CCA.indication.

FIG. 2B is a diagram that illustrates one example embodiment regardingthe condition on the transmit power of the network device.

FIG. 2C is a diagram that illustrates a further example embodimentregarding the condition on the transmit power of the network device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a further example of multi-channelassessment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram of a network device implementing a station or accesspoint that executes an enhanced CCA process.

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram exemplifying a transmitting signalprocessor in a WLAN device.

FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram exemplifying a receiving signalprocessing unit in the WLAN.

FIG. 7 is a diagram of an example wireless local area network.

FIG. 8 is a timing diagram providing an example of the carrier sensemultiple access/collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) transmission procedure.

FIG. 9 is a diagram of a very high throughput (VHT) physical layerconvergence protocol (PLCP) protocol data unit PPDU utilized by a WLANdevice physical layer.

FIG. 10 is a table of the fields of the VHT PPDU.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The embodiments provide a method and system for wireless mediumassessment from a station in a wireless communication system, such as awireless local area network (WLAN) implementing a IEEE 802.11 or similarwireless protocol. The method includes identifying conditions for awireless medium where a decision about the state of the wireless mediumis not to be made by the physical layer (PHY). Instead, any necessarydata is provided to an upper layer logically above the PHY layer toenable the upper layer to make a decision on the state of the wirelessmedium. Passing this decision onto an upper layer can accommodate themore complicated conditions that are associated with more complex andaggressive clear channel assessment (CCA) procedures. Some of theseprocedures may take into account information that is in sections of areceived frame that is not typically accessible to the PHY layer (i.e.,media access control layer (MAC) layer sections/portions of a frame).The information relevant to the state of the wireless medium that iscollected at the PHY layer can be passed up to the upper layer such thata CCA decision may be made. In some embodiments, the upper layer is aMAC layer. The PHY layer may identify scenarios where the decision isdeferred to the upper layer such as scenarios where a received frame ona wireless medium falls between CCA thresholds and additional criteriasuch as a destination station or a transmitting station in the WLAN areused to determine whether the wireless medium is busy. This informationis not available at the PHY layer and thus the decision can be deferreduntil the upper layer identifies this information. In some embodiments,a conditional state is introduced that represents this incompleteanalysis. In an alternate embodiment, rather than explicitly relyingexclusively on CCA thresholds, the decoding of the orthogonal frequencydivision multiplexing (OFDM) signal is utilized. Thus, rather thandetecting a first threshold a determination is made whether the PHYlayer can decode the OFDM signal. This indicates that the signal isabove an equivalent of a first CCA threshold without directly measuringthe signal strength or comparing it to the threshold. In thisembodiment, a comparison of the second CCA threshold may still beutilized in the same fashion as described above and herein.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth.However, it is understood that embodiments of the invention may bepracticed without these specific details. In other instances, well-knowncircuits, structures and techniques have not been shown in detail inorder not to obscure the understanding of this description. It will beappreciated, however, by one skilled in the art that the invention maybe practiced without such specific details. Those of ordinary skill inthe art, with the included descriptions, will be able to implementappropriate functionality without undue experimentation.

References in the specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,”“an example embodiment,” etc., indicate that the embodiment describedmay include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, butevery embodiment may not necessarily include the particular feature,structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarilyreferring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature,structure, or characteristic is described in connection with anembodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of oneskilled in the art to effect such feature, structure, or characteristicin connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitlydescribed.

In the following description and claims, the terms “coupled” and“connected,” along with their derivatives, may be used. It should beunderstood that these terms are not intended as synonyms for each other.“Coupled” is used to indicate that two or more elements, which may ormay not be in direct physical or electrical contact with each other,co-operate or interact with each other. “Connected” is used to indicatethe establishment of communication between two or more elements that arecoupled with each other. A “set,” as used herein refers to any positivewhole number of items including one item.

The operations in the flow diagrams will be described with reference tothe exemplary embodiments of the other figures. However, it should beunderstood that the operations of the flow diagrams can be performed byembodiments of the invention other than those discussed with referenceto the other figures, and the embodiments of the invention discussedwith reference to these other figures can perform operations differentthan those discussed with reference to the flow diagrams.

An electronic device stores and transmits (internally and/or with otherelectronic devices over a network) code (which is composed of softwareinstructions and which is sometimes referred to as computer program codeor a computer program) and/or data using machine-readable media (alsocalled computer-readable media), such as non-transitory machine-readablemedia (e.g., machine-readable storage media such as magnetic disks,optical disks, read only memory, flash memory devices, phase changememory) and transitory machine-readable transmission media (also calleda carrier) (e.g., electrical, optical, radio, acoustical or other formof propagated signals—such as carrier waves, infrared signals). Thus, anelectronic device (e.g., a computer) includes hardware and software,such as a set of one or more processors coupled to one or morenon-transitory machine-readable storage media (to store code forexecution on the set of processors and data) and a set of one or morephysical network interface(s) to establish network connections (totransmit code and/or data using propagating signals). Put another way, atypical electronic device includes memory comprising non-volatile memory(containing code regardless of whether the electronic device is on oroff) and volatile memory (e.g., dynamic random access memory (DRAM),static random access memory (SRAM)), and while the electronic device isturned on that part of the code that is currently being executed iscopied from the slower non-volatile memory into the volatile memory(often organized in a hierarchy) for execution by the processors of theelectronic device.

A network device (ND) is an electronic device that communicativelyinterconnects other electronic devices on the network (e.g., othernetwork devices, end-user devices). Some network devices are “multipleservices network devices” that provide support for multiple networkingfunctions (e.g., routing, bridging, switching, Layer 2 aggregation,session border control, Quality of Service, and/or subscribermanagement), and/or provide support for multiple application services(e.g., data, voice, and video). Network devices or network elements caninclude stations and access points in wireless communications systemssuch as wireless local area network (WLAN). Stations are devicesconnected to and communicating in a WLAN including client or userdevices that connect to the WLAN via access points. Access points arenetwork devices that may be specialized wireless access points that cancommunicate with other network devices in the WLAN via the wirelessmedium or via wired connections.

With the increased demand on WLANs there is a need for more aggressivechannel access, which requires modifications to the standard CCAprocess, such as increasing the CCA threshold value, to increase systemthroughput. However, increasing the CCA threshold value may result inmore frequent packet collisions and degradation of Quality of Service(QoS) of packet delivery.

Current IEEE 802.11 based WLAN communication systems are being deployedin diverse environments. These environments are characterized by theexistence of many access points (APs) and non-AP stations ingeographically limited areas. Increased interference from neighboringnetwork devices gives rise to performance degradation. Additionally,WLAN devices are increasingly required to support a variety ofapplications such as video, cloud access, and offloading. In particularvideo traffic is expected to be the dominant type of traffic in manyhigh efficiency WLAN deployments. With the real-time requirements ofsome of these applications, WLAN users demand improved performance indelivering their applications, including improved throughput requiringimprovements in the availability of the wireless medium.

In this regard, when a station (STA) is transmitting a packet over thewireless medium, nearby STAs are not allowed to transmit to preventcollisions from happening. The area that nearby STAs are prohibited fromtransmitting in is determined by the CCA sensitivity or CCA thresholdvalue. In a dense WLAN environment, which is a target of WLANdevelopment, current CCA threshold values (e.g., −82 dBm for 20 MHz)tends to be too conservative such that transmission efficiency isdiminished or is sub-optimal. To enhance the WLAN system throughput andnetwork efficiency, increasing the CCA threshold value is a possiblesolution. However, simply increasing the CCA threshold value (i.e.,lowering CCA sensitivity) may cause other problems that may in someinstances degrade network performance. The CCA threshold value is usedherein as a value of CCA sensitivity representing a current signalquality level above which a signal must reach to render an associatedwireless channel busy.

If the CCA threshold value is increased, transmission throughput couldbe increased, because each STA can be more aggressive in assessing thewireless medium, and thus the STA may transmit a frame more frequently.However, this aggressive transmission approach may occur even thoughthere is a frame already occupying the wireless medium. This can resultin an increased probability of packet collision, and can result insevere performance degradation under some circumstances orconfigurations such as for cell edge STAs.

The introduction of more aggressive CCA thresholds may be combined withthe use of multiple or dynamic CCA thresholds, where a particular CCAthreshold value is utilized under specifically defined circumstances.However, these circumstances may require the knowledge of networkinginformation that is not readily available at a physical layer (PHY)where the CCA process is implemented. For example, if a decision onwhich CCA threshold value is to be applied relies on a target station ora transmitting station that is in proximity to the implementing station,then this analysis may require information known or determined at anupper layer above the PHY layer such as in a media access control (MAC)layer or similar layer of the IEEE 802.11 process. This introduces aproblem for the CCA process to determine a status of the wirelessmedium. The embodiments described herein provide a mechanism forovercoming these problems and similar issues where the determination ofa state of a wireless medium is to be determined with the involvement ofa layer above the PHY layer of the IEEE 802.11 process.

The Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) model is a conceptual model thatcharacterizes and standardizes the communication functions of atelecommunication system, which is a reference for understanding thecontext in which process, protocols and data structures are operating insuch systems. A basic representation of the OSI model is illustratedbelow in Table II. As discussed above, the embodiments provide a processwhereby layers above the PHY layer are involved in the CCA process. ThePHY layer is the lowest layer of the OSI model and defines electricaland physical connections, including the relationships between the mediumand physical devices. The data link layer controls connections betweentwo devices and is composed of the MAC layer and logical link control(LLC) layer. In particular, the MAC layer controls how devices gainaccess to data and obtain permission to transmit data and the LLC layeridentifies/encapsulates network layer protocols, performs errorcorrection, and performs packet synchronization. As shown and described,the data link layer (and through association the MAC and LLC layers)operate above the PHY layer. While the embodiments may describe theinvolvement of the MAC (or ‘data link’) layer, one skilled in the artwould understand that any combination of the higher layers could also beinvolved in conjunction with the PHY layer.

TABLE II OSI MODEL Application Layer (e.g., BGP, DHCP, and DNS)Presentation Layer (e.g., data translation and formatting) Session Layer(e.g., SCP, RPC or PAP) Transport Layer (e.g., TCP, UDP, and RSVP)Network Layer (e.g., IPv4, IPv6, ICMP or IGMP) Data Link Layer (i.e.,MAC Layer; OSPF, PPP or Ethernet) Physical (PHY) Layer (e.g., OFDM)

The embodiments provide a method and system of providing relevantchannel assessment information from a PHY layer to an upper layer withina network device in a wireless communication system. Generally, theembodiments provide a method that determines a received signal quality(i.e., a power level, signal to noise ratio or similar metric of thereceived signal characteristics) of a given wireless medium or aparticular wireless channel within the wireless medium. Thecharacteristics of the wireless medium, such as the signal qualitymetric, can be analyzed to determine whether a state of the wirelessmedium can be definitively determined. Any set of conditions related tosignal quality or similar information available at the PHY layer can beprocessed to determine a state of the wireless medium. However, if theset of conditions do not allow for a definitive determination of thestate of the wireless medium, then an indication or information relatedto the received signal can be provided to an upper layer to enable theupper layer to determine a state of the wireless medium. In someembodiments, a conditional state is reported to the upper layer. Forexample, in scenarios where there are multiple CCA thresholds theconditional state can be reported to the upper layer indicating to theupper layer that a wireless medium (or a channel thereof) isconditionally idle when the received signal quality is between a firstCCA threshold value and a second CCA threshold value.

More specifically, IEEE 802.11 based WLAN systems implement CCA in thephysical layer (PHY) to determine the current state of use of thewireless medium (WM), such that a station will access the channel onlywhen the WM becomes idle. When the PHY layer identifies a change in thestatus of the WM, the PHY indicates this information to the upper layer,e.g., informs the MAC layer using a PHY-CCA.indication primitive. ThePHY-CCA.indication primitive is an indication by the PHY layer to thelocal MAC entity of the current state of the wireless medium andprovides observed Idle Power Indicator (IPI) values when IPI reportingis turned on. The parameters of the PHY-CCA.indication primitivecomprises STATE, IPI-REPORT, and channel-list. The STATE parameter canbe one of two values: BUSY or IDLE. The parameter value is BUSY if theassessment of the channel(s) by the PHY layer determines that thechannel(s) are not available. Otherwise, the value of the parameter isIDLE.

In one example embodiment, the IPI-REPORT parameter is present ifdot11RadioMeasurementActivated is true and if IPI reporting has beenturned on by the IPI-STATE parameter. The IPI-REPORT parameter providesa set of IPI values for a time interval. The set of IPI values may beused by the MAC layer for radio measurement purposes. The set of IPIvalues are recent values observed by the PHY entity since the generationof the most recent PHY-TXEND.confirm, PHY-RXEND.indication,PHY-CCARESET.confirm, or xPHY-CCA.indication primitive, whicheveroccurred latest.

When the STATE of the PHY-CCA.indication is IDLE or when, for the typeof PHY layer in operation, the CCA is determined for a single channel,the channel-list parameter may be absent. Otherwise, the channel-listcarries a set of values indicating which channels are busy. Thechannel-list parameter in a PHY-CCA.indication primitive generated by avery high throughput (VHT) station contains at most a single element. InTable III below the channel-list parameter elements(11ac) of the IEEE802.11Revmc D3.3 standard defines the members of this set.

TABLE III channel-list element Meaning primary For an HT STA that is nota VHT STA, indicates that the primary 20 MHz channel is busy. For a VHTSTA, indicates that the primary 20 MHz channel is busy according to therules specified in 22.3.18.5.3 (CCA sensitivity for signals occupyingthe primary 20 MHz channel). For a TVHT STA, indicates that the primarychannel is busy according to the rules specified in 23.3.18.6.3 (CCAsensitivity for signals occupying the primary channel).(11af) secondaryFor an HT STA that is not a VHT STA, indicates that the secondarychannel is busy. For a VHT STA, indicates that the secondary 20 MHzchannel is busy according to the rules specified in 22.3.18.5.4 (CCAsensitivity for signals not occupying the primary 20 MHz channel). For aTVHT STA, indicates that the secondary channel is busy according to therules specified in 23.3.18.6.4 (CCA sensitivity for signals notoccupying the primary channel).(11af) secondary40 Indicates that thesecondary 40 MHz channel is busy according to the rules specified in22.3.18.5.4 (CCA sensitivity for signals not occupying the primary 20MHz channel). For a TVHT STA, indicates that the secondary TVHT_2Wchannel is busy according to the rules specified in 23.3.18.6.4 (CCAsensitivity for signals not occupying the primary channel).(11af)secondary80 Indicates that the secondary 80 MHz channel is busyaccording to the rules specified in 22.3.18.5.4 (CCA sensitivity forsignals not occupying the primary 20 MHz channel).

A PHY-CCA.indication is generated when the status of any of the set ofchannels of a wireless medium change from an IDLE status to BUSY status,from BUSY to IDLE or when the elements of the channel-list parameterchange. The PHY-CCA.indication can be generated when this statusinformation changes, including during the period of time when the PHYlayer is receiving data. The timing of generating PHY.CCA.indicationprimitives related to transitions on secondary channels can be PHY layerspecific.

However, this basic PHY-CCA.indication primitive as described above hassome limitations when it is to be used in connection with nextgeneration WLAN systems, e.g., IEEE 802.11ax. These limitations arerelated to the problems of using more complicated and aggressive CCAprocesses. In some wireless standards (e.g., IEEE 802.11REVmc_D3.3), CCAis decided by the PHY layer and its result is indicated to the MAC layerusing the PHY-CCA.indication primitive. However, if a more sophisticatedCCA mechanism is used in a WLAN system, such as IEEE 802.11ax, it maynot be possible to assess the channel status without involvement of theMAC layer.

Examples of cases where involvement of the MAC layer is needed includewhere a station supports transmit power control (TPC). In this case thestation may assess the channel as idle or busy depending on transmissionpower or bandwidth, which is set by the MAC layer. In another example,if a station needs to identify the target receiver of a packet thatoccupies the wireless medium and compare this information with aneighboring station list that a MAC layer manages, then the station mayassess the channel idle or busy depending on the outcome of thecomparison in the MAC layer. In a further example, if a channelassessment and a transmission priority of a station is coupled togethersuch that depending on the received signal quality, the station may havea different transmission priority and transmission power, the decisionon the wireless medium cannot be made at the PHY layer but needs to goup to the MAC layer.

When a station identifies the start of an orthogonal frequency divisionmultiple access (OFDMA) packet, it may declare wireless medium to bebusy. However, if the STA still needs to check the information on thePHY layer preamble part (e.g., BSS information of the transmitter), theSTA's channel assessment at the start of the packet is not a finaldecision, and thus the MAC layer may need to act differently dependingon PHY layer information, which is not delivered to the MAC layer incurrent PHY-CCA.indication primitive. As current PHY-CCA.indicationprovides only STATE, IPI-REPORT, and channel-list information to MAClayer, this mechanism cannot support MAC-aided channel assessmentprocess that is described above.

The embodiments described herein augment the use of thePHY-CCA.indication primitive and the logic for generating thePHY-CCA.indication primitive. The embodiments provide a method forindicating channel assessment information from the PHY layer to the MAClayer. More specifically, in one embodiment a method that enables theMAC layer to assess the wireless medium status correctly based on theinformation the PHY layer provides to the MAC layer is described. Insome embodiments, instead of the PHY layer deciding channel statusentirely on its own and indicating a channel assessment result to anupper layer, e.g., a MAC layer, the embodiments define a Physicallayer-Service Access Point (PHY-SAP) primitive that the PHY layerutilizes to forward channel status information without a final decisionon channel assessment. In other embodiments, the PHY layer indicateschannel assessment result as ‘conditionally idle,’ which implies thatchannel will be idle if some conditions that the MAC layer is involvedwith evaluating are met. Therefore, the PHY layer provides informationto the MAC layer to enable the MAC layer to decide how to determine astatus of the wireless medium and adjust its own transmission. There aremultiple different embodiments available based on the concept andexamples provided herein. The scope of the methods and systems are notlimited to the embodiments and examples provided herein. Rather, oneskilled in the art would understand that other embodiments are enabledthat are consistent with the principles and structures described herein.The embodiments and examples are provided by way of illustration and notlimitation.

FIG. 1A is a flowchart of one embodiment of a process for identifyingcases where CCA assessment is to be passed to an upper layer. Theillustrated embodiment describes the process as applicable to anyimplementation or context, whereas further embodiments andimplementations are described further herein below by way of example.The process identifies conditions on a wireless medium where an upperlayer decision is required to determine the state of the wireless medium(Block 101). The PHY layer is unable to determine a state of thewireless medium due to modifications to the CCA process beingimplemented by a network device that relies on data available at a levelabove the PHY layer. For example, in implementations where the state ofthe wireless medium is determined based on whether a target networkdevice is in a neighbor list maintained at the MAC layer, the PHY layerdetermines that the decision is to be made at the upper layer and defersto the upper layer where a set of defined conditions are detected suchas the signal quality falling between a set of CCA thresholds. While theexamples primarily discuss the determination of the state of a wirelessmedium, one skilled in the art would understand that the process can beapplied for specific wireless channels or for any subset of the wirelesschannels in the wireless medium.

Where the conditions for deferring to the upper layer are detected, thenthe PHY layer provides the requisite data to the upper layer to enablethe decision on the state of the wireless medium to be completed (Block103). The requisite data can be any information such as informationpassed in the PHY-CCA.indication. The requisite data can be an indicatorsuch as a conditional state indicator or specific PHY layer data can beprovided dependent on the decision making process and the upper layer tocomplete the decision making process on the state of the wirelessmedium.

FIG. 1B is a flowchart of another embodiment of a process foridentifying cases involving CCA assessment where a conditionally idlestate is identified and passed to an upper layer. This embodiment isprovided by way of example to illustrate a case where the PHY layeridentifies a scenario where an upper layer will make a determination ofthe status of the wireless medium. This scenario demonstrates a casewhere the PHY layer identifies scenarios where a signal quality of areceived frame falls between two CCA thresholds, where the applicablethreshold is dependent on information determined at an upper layer suchas a check related to a source or target network device. In thisembodiment, the process is initiated in response to receiving a frame ona wireless channel of a wireless medium (Block 151). The signal qualityof the frame is then determined (Block 153). A check is then made inthis example to determine whether the signal quality falls between twothresholds.

This aspect of the process can be described in relation to FIG. 2A. FIG.2A is a timing diagram of a wireless medium providing example caseswhere a decision about the state of the wireless medium is deferred toan upper layer. As shown in FIG. 1A, the process checks whether thefirst CCA is exceeded by the signal quality of the received frame (Block155). In other embodiments, a decoding of the OFDM signal is used inplace of the direct comparison of the signal quality of the receivedframe. Decoding the OFDM signal indicates that the signal strength wouldexceed the first CCA threshold. For sake of clarity, the example ofdirect first CCA threshold comparison is used herein, however, oneskilled in the art would understand that the OFDM decoding could be usedin its place. Where the first CCA threshold is not exceeded, then theprocess determines at the PHY layer that the wireless channel is idle(Block 157). Where the received frame is above the first CCA threshold acheck is made whether the signal quality is above a second CCA threshold(Block 161). Where the signal quality is above the second threshold,then the wireless medium is determined to be busy by the PHY layer.However, where the signal quality is between the first CCA threshold andthe second CCA threshold, then the process defers the decision on thestate of the wireless medium and provides an indication of aconditionally idle state or similar indication for the wireless channel(Block 163).

Returning to the example of FIG. 2A, the first CCA threshold level isset at −82 dBm and the second CCA threshold level is set at −62 dBm.And, a network device identifies a start of an OFDM symbol on theprimary channel. In the first part, (a), of the FIG. 2A, the receivedsignal power is −60 dBm, which is greater than the second CCA threshold.Therefore, the PHY layer identifies the wireless medium as busy and, forexample sends the PHY-CCA.indication primitive to MAC layer with theparameter STATE set as busy and the parameter channel-list set asprimary. However, in the second part, (b), of the FIG. 2A, the receivedsignal power is −75 dBm, which is in between the first CCA threshold andthe second CCA thresholds. In this case, where the received signal powerfalls in a given range (i.e., between the first CCA threshold and thesecond CCA threshold), the decision on the status of the wireless mediumdepends on the transmission power of the network device. The PHY layeridentifies the wireless medium as conditional-idle. In one embodiment,the PHY layer sends a PHY-CCA.indication primitive to the MAC layer withthe parameter STATE set as conditional-idle. In a further embodiment,the PHY-CCA.indication.primitive includes additional parameters, such asa parameter channel-list (which may be empty), a parametercondition-list that may include RSSI (e.g., indicating RSSI=−75 dBm forthe primary 20 MHz channel) and similar information.

FIG. 2B is a diagram that illustrates one example embodiment regardingthe condition on the transmit power of the network device relative to anadjusted CCA threshold value. As shown in FIG. 2B, the adjusted CCAthreshold for assessing a channel to be busy is variable depending onthe amount of power reduction from the station's maximum transmissionpower level. If the station does not reduce its transmission power(station's TXPWR Reduction=0 dB), the adjusted CCA threshold is set tothe first CCA threshold level (−82 dBm). However, if the station reducesits transmission power, the amount of increase in the adjusted CCAthreshold level from the first CCA threshold level is proportional tothe level of decrease in the station's transmission power until theadjusted CCA threshold level reaches the second CCA threshold level (−62dBm) (i.e., at power reduction level P1). If the adjusted CCA thresholdlevel reaches the second CCA threshold level, the adjusted CCA thresholdlevel is not increased further even if the station decreases itstransmission power more.

As shown in the example in FIG. 2B, the detected/received signal level,which is passed from the PHY layer to an upper layer (e.g., the MAClayer) is between the first CCA threshold level and the second CCAthreshold level. This initially caused the PHY layer to report that themedium/channel is conditionally idle. This state/status of themedium/channel is passed, along with the detected/received power levelof the channel/medium, to the upper layer through thePHY-CCA.indication.primitive or another data structure. The MAC layerdetermines the TXPWR reduction based on various factors, includingchanges in RSSI values over time or similar metrics. As shown in theexample in FIG. 2B, the TXPWR reduction level is at P2. Based on theproportional relationship between the TXPWR reduction level, theadjusted CCA threshold is set to Thr3. Since the detected/received powerlevel of the channel/medium is below the adjusted CCA threshold (i.e.,below Thr3), the channel/medium is determined by the upper layer to beIDLE.

In contrast, in a different example shown in FIG. 2C, the TXPWRreduction level is still at P2, which causes the adjusted CCA thresholdto be proportionally set at Thr3 as described above. However, thedetected/received power level is now above the adjusted CCA threshold(i.e., above Thr3). Accordingly, the upper layer determines that thechannel/medium is determined to be BUSY.

Table IV illustrates another example embodiment regarding the conditionof the transmission power of the network device. As shown in Table IV,the adjusted CCA threshold for assessing the channel busy or idle isadjusted depending on the transmission bandwidth of the station'spending frame transmission. If the station's transmission bandwidth ofthe pending frame is 20 MHz, the adjusted CCA threshold is the same asthe first CCA threshold level (−82 dBm). However, if the station'stransmission bandwidth of the station's pending frame is higher than 20MHz, the station's CCA threshold level is adjusted such that a higherCCA threshold level is applied if the transmission bandwidth isincreased. As shown in Table IV, the adjusted CCA threshold level isincreased by 3 dB if the transmission bandwidth is doubled.

TABLE IV Transmission Bandwidth Adjusted CCA Threshold [dBm] 20 MHz Thr140 MHz Thr1 + 3 80 MHz Thr1 + 6 160 MHz or 80 MHz + 80 MHz Thr1 + 9

Returning to the example of FIG. 2A, the PHY-CCA.indication primitive ismodified to further indicate a state that the status of a wirelessmedium can be determined by the MAC layer. For this purpose, a statewhich indicates that channel is idle under some condition is added. Ifthe state parameter in the PHY-CCA.indication indicates that channel isidle under some condition, the PHY-CCA.indication primitive carriesinformation that is needed for the MAC layer to determine the conditionof the wireless medium. Based on this principle, the STATE parameter inthis example can be one of following values: BUSY, IDLE, andCONDITIONAL-IDLE. The parameter value is BUSY if the assessment of thechannel(s) by the PHY layer determines that the channel(s) are notavailable. The parameter value is CONDITIONAL-IDLE if the assessment ofthe channel(s) by the PHY layer determines that channel(s) are availableunder some conditions. Otherwise, the value of the parameter is IDLE.Also, the PHY-CCA.indication primitive may comprise another parameter,e.g., condition-list, wherein when STATE is BUSY or IDLE, thecondition-list parameter is absent. Otherwise, the condition-listparameter carries information that is needed for the MAC layer todetermine to meet the condition. Examples of the information that isprovided to an upper layer such as the example MAC layer, may comprisereceived signal strength, received signal strength for each wirelesschannel, channel status information of the received frame that occupiesthe wireless medium, information on a target receiver of the frame thatoccupies the wireless medium, information on a transmitter of the framethat occupies the wireless medium, information on a duration of theframe that occupies the wireless medium, an RXVECTOR, or similarinformation. In some embodiments, the parameter related with thecondition may be carried using other PHY primitive, such asPHY-RXSTART.indication. In some embodiments, this information can beprovided to the upper layer in combination with any state of thewireless medium such as where the wireless medium is determined to beeither idle or busy by the PHY layer.

FIG. 3 is a diagram that illustrates another example embodiment formulti-channel assessment. In the illustrated example a secondarywireless channel is assessed. In this example, the same CCA policy isdescribed herein above with regard to FIGS. 1B and 2. However, in thisexample, a network device is capable of receiving a wide bandwidthsignal (80 MHz). And, at the time of assessing the wireless medium, thereceived power of the primary 20 MHz channel is −90 dBm and thesecondary 20 MHz channel is −70 dBm, and the secondary 40 MHz channel is−50 dBm. Because the received power of the primary channel is below thefirst CCA threshold (−82 dBm), the network device will also check thesecondary channels, and will find out that the secondary 20 MHz channelis in between the first and the second CCA threshold value, while thesecondary 40 MHz channel is above the second CCA threshold value (−62dBm). As the network device is allowed to transmit in both the primaryand the secondary 20 MHz channels, even though transmission condition isdifferent (no condition for the primary 20 MHz but there is a conditionfor the secondary 20 MHz channel), because the network device may needto use the same transmission power for both the primary channel and thesecondary 20 MHz channel, the PHY layer indicates the channel assessmentstate as conditional-idle. The details of the received signal strengthindicator (RSSI) value for both the primary channel and the secondary 20MHz channel is indicated using the PHY-CCA.indication primitive.Therefore, the PHY-CCA.indication primitive may have the parameter STATEset as conditional-idle, the parameter channel-list set as secondary,and the parameter condition-list indicating “RSSI(primary)=−90 dBm andRSSI(secondary 20)=−70 dBm.”

In another example embodiment, a method of indicating channel assessmentfrom a PHY layer to upper layer within a device in a wirelesscommunication system is provided. In this embodiment, the methodmeasures a received power of the wireless channel. The process indicatesto the upper layer that the channel is busy, if the received power isabove a first CCA threshold value. The process indicates to the upperlayer that the channel is idle, if the received power is below a secondthreshold value, where the second threshold value is smaller than thefirst CCA threshold value. The process indicates to the upper layer thatthe wireless channel is conditionally idle, if the received power isbetween the first threshold value and the second threshold value.

FIG. 4 is a diagram of a network device implementing a station or accesspoint that executes a CCA process that detects deferred statedetermination scenarios. In a wireless local area network (WLAN) such asthe example WLAN illustrated in FIG. 7. Each of the WLAN devices mayinclude a medium access control (MAC) layer and a physical (PHY) layeraccording to IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)802.11 standard. In the plurality of WLAN devices, at least one WLANdevice may be an access point (AP) station (e.g., access point 0 andaccess point 1 in FIG. 7) and the other WLAN devices may be non-APstations (non-AP STAs), (e.g., stations 0-3 in FIG. 7). Alternatively,all of the plurality of WLAN devices may be non-AP STAs in an Ad-hocnetworking environment. In general, the AP STA and the non-AP STA may beeach referred to herein as a station (STA). However, for ease ofdescription, only the non-AP STA will be referred to herein as a STAwhereas the AP stations are referred to herein as APs for ease ofdescription. As shown in FIG. 7, a WLAN can have any combination ofstations and access points that can form a discrete network, an ad hocnetwork or any combination thereof. Any number of APs and stations canbe included in a WLAN and any topology and configuration of such APs andstations in the network can be utilized.

Referring to FIG. 4, the example WLAN device 400 includes a basebandprocessor 410, a radio frequency (RF) transceiver 420, an antenna unit430, memory 440, an input interface unit 450, an output interface unit460, and a bus 470. The baseband processor 410 performs baseband signalprocessing, and includes a MAC processor 411 and a PHY processor 415.These processors can be any type of integrated circuit (IC) including ageneral processing unit or an application specific integrated circuit(ASIC).

In one embodiment, the MAC processor 411 may include a MAC softwareprocessing unit 412 and a MAC hardware processing unit 413. The memory440 may store software (hereinafter referred to as “MAC software”),including at least some functions of the MAC layer. The MAC softwareprocessing unit 412 executes the MAC software to implement somefunctions of the MAC layer and the MAC hardware processing unit 413 mayimplement the remaining functions of the MAC layer in hardware(hereinafter referred to “MAC hardware”). However, the MAC processor 411is not limited to this distribution of functionality.

The PHY processor 415 includes a transmitting signal processing unit 500and a receiving signal processing unit 600 described further hereinbelow with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6. In some embodiments, the PHYprocessor 415 can also implement the deferred CCA module 300. Thedeferred CCA module 300 and the station set management module 400 canimplement the respective functions for any combination of theembodiments described herein above with regard to FIGS. 1-3. In otherembodiments, these modules may be implemented by or distributed overboth the PHY processor 415 and the MAC processor 411. These modules maybe implemented as software or as hardware components of either the PHYprocessor 415 or MAC processor 411. These modules can be implemented ascomponents of the transmitting signal processing unit 500 and thereceiving signal processing unit 600 or as discrete components. In afurther embodiment, the deferred CCA module 300 can be implemented byseparate components or processors within the baseband processor 410.

The baseband processor 410, the memory 440, the input interface unit450, and the output interface unit 460 may communicate with each othervia the bus 470. The radio frequency (RF) transceiver 420 includes an RFtransmitter 421 and an RF receiver 422. The memory 440 may further storean operating system and applications. In some embodiments, the memorymay store the nearby stations set. The input interface unit 450 receivesinformation from a user and the output interface unit 460 outputsinformation to the user.

The antenna unit 430 includes one or more antennas. When amultiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) or a multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO)system is used, the antenna unit 430 may include a plurality ofantennas.

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram exemplifying a transmitting signalprocessor in a WLAN device. Referring to the above drawing, atransmitting signal processing unit 500 includes an encoder 510, aninterleaver 520, a mapper 530, an inverse Fourier transformer (IFT) 540,and a guard interval (GI) inserter 550. The encoder 510 encodes inputdata. For example, the encoder 510 may be a forward error correction(FEC) encoder. The FEC encoder may include a binary convolutional code(BCC) encoder followed by a puncturing device or may include alow-density parity-check (LDPC) encoder.

The transmitting signal processing unit 500 may further include ascrambler for scrambling the input data before encoding to reduce theprobability of long sequences of 0s or 1s. If BCC encoding is used inthe encoder 510, the transmitting signal processing unit 500 may furtherinclude an encoder parser for demultiplexing the scrambled bits among aplurality of BCC encoders. If LDPC encoding is used in the encoder 510,the transmitting signal processing unit 500 may not use the encoderparser.

The interleaver 520 interleaves the bits of each stream output from theencoder to change the order of bits. Interleaving may be applied onlywhen BCC encoding is used. The mapper 530 maps the sequence of bitsoutput from the interleaver to constellation points. If LDPC encoding isused in the encoder 510, the mapper 530 may further perform LDPC tonemapping in addition to constellation mapping.

When multiple input—multiple output (MIMO) or multiple user (MU)-MIMO isused, the transmitting signal processing unit 500 may use a plurality ofinterleavers 520 and a plurality of mappers 530 corresponding to thenumber N_(SS) of spatial streams. In this case, the transmitting signalprocessing unit 500 may further include a stream parser for dividingoutputs of the BCC encoders or the LDPC encoder into blocks that aresent to different interleavers 520 or mappers 530. The transmittingsignal processing unit 500 may further include a space-time block code(STBC) encoder for spreading the constellation points from the N_(SS)spatial streams into N_(STS) space-time streams and a spatial mapper formapping the space-time streams to transmit chains. The spatial mappermay use direct mapping, spatial expansion, or beamforming.

The IFT 540 converts a block of the constellation points output from themapper 530 or the spatial mapper to a time domain block (i.e., a symbol)by using an inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT) or an inverse fastFourier transform (IFFT). If the STBC encoder and the spatial mapper areused, the inverse Fourier transformer 540 may be provided for eachtransmit chain.

When MIMO or MU-MIMO is used, the transmitting signal processing unit500 may insert cyclic shift diversities (CSDs) to prevent unintentionalbeamforming. The CSD insertion may occur before or after the inverseFourier transform 540. The CSD may be specified per transmit chain ormay be specified per space-time stream. Alternatively, the CSD may beapplied as a part of the spatial mapper. When MU-MIMO is used, someblocks before the spatial mapper may be provided for each user.

The GI inserter 550 prepends a GI to the symbol. The transmitting signalprocessing unit 500 may optionally perform windowing to smooth edges ofeach symbol after inserting the GI. The RF transmitter 421 converts thesymbols into an RF signal and transmits the RF signal via the antennaunit 430. When MIMO or MU-MIMO is used, the GI inserter 550 and the RFtransmitter 421 may be provided for each transmit chain.

FIG. 6 a schematic block diagram exemplifying a receiving signalprocessing unit in the WLAN. Referring to FIG. 6, a receiving signalprocessing unit 600 includes a GI remover 620, a Fourier transformer(FT) 630, a demapper 640, a deinterleaver 650, and a decoder 660.

An RF receiver 422 receives an RF signal via the antenna unit 430 andconverts the RF signal into symbols. The GI remover 620 removes the GIfrom the symbol. When MIMO or MU-MIMO is used, the RF receiver 422 andthe GI remover 620 may be provided for each receive chain.

The FT 630 converts the symbol (i.e., the time domain block) into ablock of constellation points by using a discrete Fourier transform(DFT) or a fast Fourier transform (FFT). The Fourier transformer 630 maybe provided for each receive chain.

When MIMO or MU-MIMO is used, the receiving signal processing unit 600may use a spatial demapper for converting the Fourier transformedreceiver chains to constellation points of the space-time streams and anSTBC decoder for despreading the constellation points from thespace-time streams into the spatial streams.

The demapper 640 demaps the constellation points output from the Fouriertransformer 630 or the STBC decoder to bit streams. If LDPC encoding isused, the demapper 640 may further perform LDPC tone demapping beforeconstellation demapping. The deinterleaver 650 deinterleaves the bits ofeach stream output from the demapper 640. Deinterleaving may be appliedonly when BCC encoding is used.

When MIMO or MU-MIMO is used, the receiving signal processing unit 600may use a plurality of demappers 640 and a plurality of deinterleavers650 corresponding to the number of spatial streams. In this case, thereceiving signal processing unit 600 may further include a streamdeparser for combining the streams output from the deinterleavers 650.

The decoder 660 decodes the streams output from the deinterleaver 650 orthe stream deparser. For example, the decoder 660 may be an FEC decoder.The FEC decoder may include a BCC decoder or an LDPC decoder. Thereceiving signal processing unit 600 may further include a descramblerfor descrambling the decoded data. If BCC decoding is used in thedecoder 660, the receiving signal processing unit 600 may furtherinclude an encoder deparser for multiplexing the data decoded by aplurality of BCC decoders. If LDPC decoding is used in the decoder 660,the receiving signal processing unit 500 may not use the encoderdeparser.

A frame as used herein may refer to a data frame, a control frame, or amanagement frame may be exchanged between WLAN devices. The data frameis used for transmission of data forwarded to a higher layer. The WLANdevice transmits the data frame when the wireless medium is consideredto be in an idle condition or state such as after performing backoff ifa DIFS has elapsed from a time when the medium was not busy or undersimilar conditions. The management frame is used for exchangingmanagement information, which is not forwarded to the higher layer.Subtype frames of the management frame include a beacon frame, anassociation request/response frame, a probe request/response frame, andan authentication request/response frame. The control frame is used forcontrolling access to the medium. Subtype frames of the control frameinclude a request to send (RTS) frame, a clear to send (CTS) frame, andan acknowledgement (ACK) frame. In the case that the control frame isnot a response frame of the other frame, the WLAN device transmits thecontrol frame after performing backoff if the DIFS has elapsed. In thecase that the control frame is the response frame of the other frame,the WLAN device transmits the control frame without performing backoffif a short IFS (SIFS) has elapsed. The type and subtype of frame may beidentified by a type field and a subtype field in a frame control field.

On the other hand, a Quality of Service (QoS) STA may transmit the frameafter performing backoff if an arbitration IFS (AIFS) for an associatedaccess category (AC), i.e., AIFS[AC] has elapsed. In this case, the dataframe, the management frame, or the control frame, which is not theresponse frame, may use the AIFS[AC].

As discussed herein CCA and in particular an enhanced CCA module isimplemented to manage the transmission of frames by the WLAN device. CCAmay implement a CSMA (carrier sense multiple access)/CA (collisionavoidance) based frame transmission procedure or similar procedure foravoiding collisions between frames in a channel.

FIG. 8 is a timing diagram providing an example of the CSMA/CAtransmission procedure. In the illustrated example, STA1 is a transmitWLAN device for transmitting data, STA2 is a receive WLAN device forreceiving the data, and STA3 is a WLAN device, which may be located atan area where a frame transmitted from the STA1 and/or a frametransmitted from the STA2 can be received by the WLAN device.

STA1 may determine whether the channel is busy by carrier sensing. TheSTA1 may determine the channel occupation based on a quality of thesignal on the channel or correlation of signals in the channel, or maydetermine the channel occupation by using a network allocation vector(NAV) timer.

When determining that the channel is not used by other devices duringDIFS (that is, the channel is idle), STA1 may transmit an RTS frame toSTA2 after performing backoff. Upon receiving the RTS frame, STA2 maytransmit a CTS frame as a response of the CTS frame after SIFS. WhenSTA3 receives the RTS frame, it may set the NAV timer for a transmissionduration of subsequently transmitted frames (for example, a duration ofSIFS+CTS frame duration+SIFS+data frame duration+SIFS+ACK frameduration) by using duration information included in the RTS frame. WhenSTA3 receives the CTS frame, it may set the NAV timer for a transmissionduration of subsequently transmitted frames (for example, a duration ofSIFS+data frame duration+SIFS+ACK frame duration) by using durationinformation included in the RTS frame. Upon receiving a new frame beforethe NAV timer expires, STA3 may update the NAV timer by using durationinformation included in the new frame. STA3 does not attempt to accessthe channel until the NAV timer expires.

When STA1 receives the CTS frame from the STA2, it may transmit a dataframe to the STA2 after SIFS elapses from a time when the CTS frame hasbeen completely received. Upon successfully receiving the data frame,the STA2 may transmit an ACK frame as a response of the data frame afterSIFS elapses.

When the NAV timer expires, STA3 may determine whether the channel isbusy through the use of carrier sensing techniques. Upon determiningthat the channel is not used by other devices during DIFS and after theNAV timer has expired, STA3 may attempt channel access after acontention window according to random backoff elapses.

The solutions provided herein have been described with reference to awireless LAN system; however, it should be understood that thesesolutions are also applicable to other network environments, such ascellular telecommunication networks, wired networks, and similarcommunication networks.

An embodiment of the invention may be an article of manufacture in whicha non-transitory machine-readable medium (such as microelectronicmemory) has stored thereon instructions which program one or more dataprocessing components (generically referred to here as a “processor”) toperform the operations described above. In other embodiments, some ofthese operations might be performed by specific hardware components thatcontain hardwired logic (e.g., dedicated digital filter blocks and statemachines). Those operations might alternatively be performed by anycombination of programmed data processing components and fixed hardwiredcircuit components.

The PHY entity for 802.11 implemented in the WLAN device is based onorthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDM or OFDMA. In eitherOFDM or OFDMA PHY layers, a STA is capable of transmitting and receivingPPDUs that are compliant with the mandatory PHY specifications. In a PHYspecification, set of MCS and maximum number of spatial streams aredefined. Also in some PHY entities, downlink and/or uplink MUtransmission with a maximum number of space-time streams per user and upto a fix total number of space-time streams is defined.

FIG. 9 is a diagram of a very high throughput (VHT) PPDU utilized by theWLAN device PHY layer. FIG. 10 is a table of the fields of the VHT PPDU.Some PHY entities define PPDU that are individually addressed (whereidentification is based on AID or Partial AID) and some are groupaddressed (where identification is based on Group ID, GID). Some PHYentities provide support for 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz and 160 MHzcontiguous channel widths and support for 80+80 MHz non-contiguouschannel width. The data subcarriers are modulated using binary phaseshift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), 16-quadratureamplitude modulation (16-QAM), 64-QAM and 256-QAM. Forward errorcorrection (FEC) coding (convolutional or LDPC coding) is used withcoding rates of 1/2, 2/3, 3/4 and 5/6.

In each PHY entity, there would be fields denoted as L-SIG, SGI-A, SIG-Bwhere some crucial information about the PSDU attributes are listed.These symbols are usually encoded with the most robust MCS. The L-SIG,SGI-A, SIG-B have very limited number of bits and it is desired toencode them in the most compact form possible. In a receiving STA, firstthese symbols are decoded in order to obtain vital information about thePSDU attributes and some MAC attributes. In IEE 802.11ac, these symbolsare called VHT SIG-A and VHT SIG-B symbols.

As discussed above, WLAN devices are currently being deployed in diverseenvironments. These environments are characterized by the existence ofmany access points and non-AP stations in geographically limited areas.Increased interference from neighboring devices gives rise toperformance degradation. Additionally WLAN devices are increasinglyrequired to support a variety of applications such as video, cloudaccess, and offloading. In particular video traffic is expected to bethe dominant type of traffic in many high efficiency WLAN deployments.With the real-time requirements of some of these applications, WLANusers demand improved performance in delivering their applications,including improved power consumption for battery-operated devices.

IEEE 802.11ax or HE SIG-A and IEEE 802.11ax or HE SIG-B are referred tosimply as simply by SIG-A and SIG-B and are amendments to the 802.11standard directed at addressing these problems. Unlike previousamendments where the focus was on improving aggregate throughput, thisamendment focuses on improving metrics that reflect user experience,such as average per station throughput, the 5th percentile of perstation throughput of a group of stations, and area throughput.Improvements will be made to support environments such as wirelesscorporate office, outdoor hotspot, dense residential apartments, andstadiums.

Some portions of the preceding detailed descriptions have been presentedin terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations ondata bits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the ways used by those skilled in conferencingtechnology to most effectively convey the substance of their work toothers skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally,conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of operations leading to adesired result. The operations are those requiring physicalmanipulations of physical quantities. It should be borne in mind,however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated withthe appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labelsapplied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise asapparent from the above discussion, it is appreciated that throughoutthe description, discussions utilizing terms such as those set forth inthe claims below, refer to the action and processes of a conferencedevice, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates andtransforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities withinthe conference device's registers and memories into other data similarlyrepresented as physical quantities within the conference device'smemories or registers or other such information storage, transmission ordisplay devices.

Note the operations of the flowcharts are described with reference tothe exemplary embodiments of the diagrams. However, it should beunderstood that the operations of flowcharts can be performed byembodiments of the invention other than those discussed, and theembodiments of the diagrams can perform operations different than thosediscussed with reference to the flowcharts.

While the flowcharts in the figures herein above show a particular orderof operations performed by certain embodiments of the invention, itshould be understood that such order is exemplary (e.g., alternativeembodiments may perform the operations in a different order, combinecertain operations, overlap certain operations, etc.).

While the invention has been described in terms of several embodiments,those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention is notlimited to the embodiments described, can be practiced with modificationand alteration within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Thedescription is thus to be regarded as illustrative instead of limiting.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method implemented by a network device in awireless local area network (WLAN), the method to provide clear channelassessment (CCA) from a physical layer to an upper layer within thenetwork device, the method comprising: passing at least one piece ofdata from the physical layer to the upper layer to enable a decision onthe state of the wireless medium, wherein the at least one piece of dataincludes an indication of a conditionally idle state that indicates thata channel of the wireless medium is to be determined idle upon the upperlayer determining that a set of conditions are met, including whether(1) to lower one or more of a transmission power level and a CCAthreshold and (2) that a received frame is from a neighboring device;adjusting, by the upper layer of the network device, the CCA thresholdto produce an adjusted CCA threshold based on a power reduction from amaximum transmission power level of the network device; and determiningthe state of the wireless medium based on the adjusted CCA threshold anda signal quality of the received frame.
 2. The method of claim 1,further comprising: measuring the signal quality of the received frameon the wireless channel of the wireless medium; determining whether thesignal quality is above a first threshold; and determining whether thesignal quality is above a second threshold.
 3. The method of claim 2,wherein passing the at least one piece of data further comprises:providing the indication of a conditionally idle state for the wirelesschannel when the signal quality is below the first threshold and abovethe second threshold.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the upper layeris a media access control (MAC) layer.
 5. The method of claim 1, whereinthe at least one piece of data is provided to the upper layer in a stateparameter of a physical layer (PHY)-CCA indication primitive, whereinthe state parameter indicates that the medium is busy, idle, orconditionally idle.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein a PHY-CCAindication primitive includes a condition list parameter that specifiesinformation for the upper layer to determine a condition of the wirelessmedium.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the condition list specifiesany one or more of a received signal strength for a channel bandwidth,channel status information of the received frame, target receiver of thereceived frame, transmitter of the received frame, duration of thereceived frame or a receiver vector (RXVECTOR).
 8. The method of claim1, further comprising: determining whether the physical layer is able todecode an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal onthe wireless medium.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:adjusting, by the upper layer of the network device, the CCA thresholdto produce the adjusted CCA threshold based on a transmission bandwidthof a pending frame transmission, wherein determining the state of thewireless medium is based on the adjusted CCA threshold and the signalquality of the received frame.
 10. The method of claim 1, whereinadjustment of the CCA threshold is proportional to the power reductionfrom the maximum transmission power level of the network device.
 11. Anetwork device in a wireless local area network (WLAN), the networkdevice configured to implement a method to provide clear channelassessment (CCA) from a physical layer to an upper layer within thenetwork device, the network device comprising: a non-transitory machinereadable medium having stored therein a deferred CCA module; and aprocessor coupled to the non-transitory machine readable medium, theprocessor configured to execute the deferred CCA module, the deferredCCA module configured to pass on at least one piece of data to the upperlayer to enable a decision on the state of the wireless medium, toadjust, by the upper layer of the network device, the CCA threshold toproduce an adjusted CCA threshold based a power reduction from a maximumtransmission power level of the network device, and to determine thestate of the wireless medium based on the adjusted CCA threshold and asignal quality of a received frame, wherein the at least one piece ofdata includes an indication of a conditionally idle state that indicatesthat a channel of the wireless medium is to be determined idle upon theupper layer determining that a set of conditions are met, includingwhether (1) to lower one or more of a transmission power level and a CCAthreshold and (2) that a received frame is from a neighboring device.12. The network device of claim 11, wherein the processor is furtherconfigured to measure the signal quality of the received frame of thewireless channel of the wireless medium, determine whether the signalquality is above a first threshold, and determine whether the signalquality is above a second threshold.
 13. The network device of claim 12,wherein the processor is further configured to pass on the at least onepiece of data by providing the indication of a conditionally idle statefor the wireless channel where when the signal quality is below a firstthreshold and above the second threshold.
 14. The network device ofclaim 11, wherein the upper layer is a media access control (MAC) layer.15. The network device of claim 11, wherein the at least one piece ofdata is provided to the upper layer in state parameter of a physicallayer (PHY)-CCA indication primitive.
 16. The network device of claim15, wherein the PHY-CCA indication primitive includes a condition listparameter that specifies information for the upper layer to determine acondition of the wireless medium.
 17. The network device of claim 16,wherein the condition list specifies any one or more of a receivedsignal strength for a channel bandwidth, channel status information ofthe received frame, target receiver of the received frame, transmitterof the received frame, duration of the received frame or a receivervector (RXVECTOR).
 18. The network device of claim 11, wherein theprocessor is further configured to determine whether the physical layeris able to decode an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)signal on the wireless medium.
 19. The network device of claim 11,wherein the processor is further configured to adjust, by the upperlayer of the network device, the CCA threshold to produce the adjustedCCA threshold based on a transmission bandwidth of a pending frametransmission, wherein the state of the wireless medium is determinedbased on the adjusted CCA threshold and the signal quality of thereceived frame.
 20. The network device of claim 11, wherein adjustmentof the adjusted CCA threshold is proportional to the power reductionfrom the maximum transmission power level of the network device.